Brooklyn Brewery Targeted by Boycotters After Times Gaffe

E-mails have begun to circulate, advising recipients to boycott the Brooklyn Brewery. Why? Because they shot the freak…to death! New Yorkers are fuming since it was announced that leases would not be renewed for beloved Coney Island boardwalk institutions like Ruby’s and Shoot the Freak. In an article on the Times‘ City Room blog, Charles V. Bagli reports that “Central Amusement is negotiating with Brooklyn Brewery to open a beer hall on the boardwalk, according to two executives involved in the Coney Island amusement district.” Only thing is, the Brooklyn Brewery swears it isn’t true.

“Perhaps their source had mentioned a Brooklyn brewery, not the Brooklyn Brewery,” Dan D’Ippolito, the brewery’s communications coordinator, wrote in an e-mail to a boycott-proposer. “We have not discussed building or operating a beer garden in Coney Island – nor do we have any interest in doing so.”

Be that as it may, it’s hard to stop a story on the Internet once it’s started. But you heard it here first: it’s OK to drink Brooklyn-brand beer and love Coney Island.

UPDATE: Charles V. Bagli’s New York Times piece has been edited to exclude the original offending sentence. Which would be good journalism, except there’s also no mention of a “correction,” or any indication that an offending sentence ever existed…which is so-so if not bad journalism.